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Oklahoma's Cade Horton out for the year

Freshman pitcher and infielder was projected as the Big 12 Freshman of the Year but will miss the upcoming season with an elbow injury

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma will be without star freshman Cade Horton for the upcoming baseball season, SI Sooners has confirmed.

Horton has a torn elbow ligament and will require Tommy John surgery. The news was first reported by Kendall Rogers of D1 Baseball.

Projected by D1 Baseball as the Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Horton was preparing to pitch and play infield for the Sooners.

“Cade Horton is a ballplayer,” Norman coach Cody Merrell said when Horton was named Gatorade Player of the Year. “He is obviously gifted and able to do things other high school players cannot. As a pitcher, he can throw in by any batter. Defensively, he has unbelievable range and the ability to make plays that will make you shake your head in amazement.”

Horton was named Gatorade Oklahoma Player of the Year in 2020 and was rated by Perfect Game and Prep Baseball Report as the No. 2 baseball prospect (No. 14 nationally). Among his highlights was an appearance in the Major League Baseball High School All-Star Game last summer in Cleveland.

He batted .375 during his truncated senior season (five games) and finished his high school career with 140 hits, a .420 batting average, 128 runs scored, 87 RBIs and 34 doubles. He also graduated with a 3.66 GPA.

In high school, Horton was also a standout dual-threat quarterback, throwing for 6,435 yards and 52 touchdowns and rushing for 2,583 yards and 31 TDs. His senior year at Norma High, he passed for 3,084 yards and 26 TDs with seven interceptions while rushing for 1,149 yards (9.8 yards per carry) and 15 scores.

Horton had originally planned to walk on to the OU football team as well.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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